New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-01-05
The Stlperstitions of Soldiers.

Ine SlpeESClClOnS OF SOld1efSs
AS to whether the confederate sol
der was any more superstitious than
| the federal / neither. admit nor deny,
hut II think the same superstitlons in
regard to battles probably prevailed
| to equal extent on both sides. We
may laugh at them now, but we
once accepted and pinned our faith in
| them.
The first instance to come under
my observation was at Gaines S Mills.
was then serving with an Alabama
regiment, and on the morning of the
! day on which we were making our cof-
fee at the early camp fire I heard a
| sort OF groan from comrade, and as
turned to look at him noticed that
he was staring into his coffee pot with
something like terror, while his. face
was deathly pale.
| sWhat is it?' I asked.
Il shall bekilled to-day, The groaned
| out.
"Fudge We don't know that even
| a single musket will be fred
81 dreamed last night, he whisper
ed, Nthat I looked down upon a sheet
| OF water whose surface was covered
with bubbles, and amidst them saw
my own dead face. Ishall be shot be-
| fore night"
I ridiculed the idea and brought up
others to assist me, but the only re-
| ply to our raillery was, a sad shake Of
| the head. He was a believer in
dreams, and he certainly felt that his
| last Gay had come. In place of eat
ing his breakfast he scribbled off a.
letter to his mother and entrusted it
to a comrade. In p little time we got
the orders to march, and before noon
my regiment was thrown forward to
uncover a portion of the federal line.
| The first missile sent at us was a
solid shot from a field piece, and it
struck the young soldier in the chest
/ and cut him fairly in two without in
Juring another man. Not another
man was even wounded for the next
ten minutes.
! The night before Burnside crossed
at Fredericksburg q second lieutenant
in a Virginia regiment received, with
! hundreds Of others, some mail from
the regimental bag. Icarried the pack
OF twenty or thirty letters over to the
| officers quarters and handed it to
this lieutenant. The top letter was
for him, and on one end Of the envel-
ope was a red stain. 1t looked like
blood, but was probably INK. He no
sooner saw it than he became greatly
affected, and said:
| II shall be the first officer out of
the regiment killed tomorrow
[ heard a dozen officers ridiculing
| him, but he became silent and serious,
and finally walked away by himself
! We were down on the right, where
the first federal attack was made
| Our regiment was using a long and
! deep land furrow. as q rifle pit, and
the advancing line Of blue had just
come within range, when a bullet
struck the lieutenant in the head and
killed him instantly. It came from
the front and was probably from some
sharpshoOter, but it was afterward
| agreed that the officer who was killed
was perhaps the least exposed of any.
| There was a superstition in my regi-
ment that any one who went into bat
tie with a foot of a rabbit tied around
his neck was safe. This was all right,
and rabbits feet were al high premi-
UNI for two or three weeks. NV bri-
| gade was then pushed ahead on q re.
connolssance, bumped up against the
| Yanks, and we not only got severely
thrashed, but we lost a good many
men. Out Of the seventy men in my
company presume that thirty had
the talisman. It so happened that the
three killed belonged to this lucky
set, and next day rabbits feet took 8
| decided fall in price
| was for time brigadier's order
| ~. His superstition was that he
| would be safe from bullets as long as
he rode a chestnut horse In the first
| battle into which followed him his
chestnut was shot, and, of course,
| "hustled" to bring him up another.
| Mine was a coal black, and the only
one which Icould ,et for him was a
roam. He didn't seem to notice the
difference until the action was over,
and then got a terrible rating. In
the second battle he had a chestnut,
| and even before our line came under
fire bullet crippled the horse and
another hit my superstitious gen.
eral in the thigh and left him to limp
| through life on short leg. ]
personally knew other officers who felt
safe on roans, bays, blacks and even
whites, but they sooner or later dis
covered that they had pinned their
faith to a rule which had exceptions.
remember that just before Grant at
tackled Lee in the Wilderness, and
while was at brigade headquarters,
a hen, OF which there was a large flock
in the yard, scratched up a steel but
ton. A sergeant Of cavalry at once
dismonnted and secured it, and when
asked what use he could put it to he
replied:
Il will drop it into the ear OF my
colonePs horse just before the next
battle. and no harm will come to Ell
ther OF them =
But what fetch can there be in a
steel button?''
nOh, it isn't SO much in the button
as in the hen searching it up before